The Salou City Council will launch a silvopasture pilot program next month on 47 hectares of municipal forest to reduce the risk of forest fires. The plan will mobilize a flock of about 200 sheep and 40 goats in different parts of the municipality.
The initiative comes with an economic advantage for the council, which allocates about 14,000 euros to a cheaper system than hiring a specialized company or commissioning the work to the municipal brigade. The local government also defends that grazing allows action on vegetation that can feed a fire before summer.
The flock will clear 47 hectares with 240 animals during the next month
The animals will work on municipal land and sleep in enclosures that will progressively change location. The daily workday will be from seven in the morning to nine in the evening, with an itinerant system to cover different wooded areas of Salou.
Each specimen consumes about three kilograms of vegetation daily.
The objective is to reduce the vegetation load in species such as lentisk, bramble, carob, or olive tree. The council maintains that the combination of species allows for a more complete cleaning because the goats act on the scrub and the sheep work closer to the ground.
The mayor, Pere Granados, frames the action within prevention for the hotter months and maintains that the municipality is thus getting ahead of fires that may occur in the summer.
"It is a sustainable and ecological way to keep forests in good condition" - Pere Granados, mayor of Salou
Salou lowers the cost to about 14,000 euros compared to an external contract
The municipal allocation planned for the test is around 14,000 euros. The city council places it below the cost of resorting to a specialized company or undertaking the work with the municipal brigade.
David Arenas is the shepherd who brings the flock from Alcover.
Arenas usually takes the animals to the Prades mountains and brings them down to Alcover during the winter. Now he will be in charge of leading the 200 Aranesa breed sheep and the 40 Rasquera goats in this forest prevention operation on municipal land in Salou.
Granados has also expressed the willingness to maintain the initiative in coming years if the pilot test is successful, with a system based on the progressive displacement of the enclosures where the animals will sleep.